Rail-joint.



L. R. COMPTDN.

.RAIL JOINT. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 31. 1914.

1,172,009. Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

I I I 1 I anvanhfi LEW/5 ECO/IP70 7W g I 351, mauoww I UNITED- STATESPATENT OFFICE.

nwrsa. common, or EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, Assienoa TO THE HATFIELDBAIL-JOINT MANUFACTURING COMPANY, or MACON, GEORGIA, A CORPORATION OFDELAWARE.

Application filed January 31, 1914. Serial fNo..815,639.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that-I, LEWIS R. COMPTON, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of-NewJersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail--Joints, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to rail joints of the suspended type and theprimary object of the invention is to produce an economical form ofcommercial joint so designed with the least possible amount of metalthat the part of a track at the meeting ends of adjacent. rails willhave the same properties relative to bending resistance and elasticityas the portion of the rails intermediate their ends, or which will haveproperties as near those of the rail as possible with a device of thischaracter. To attain this object there is produced a coacting pair ofsplice bars on opposite sides of the rail, forming an element of'thejoint, which bars. with their fastening elements,will have the-materialthereof so disposed that together they will have a moment of inertiasubstantially equal to that of the rail itself and which will have themetal so, disposed that the stresses to which the rails are subjectedwill continuous uniformity ofwave motion when subjected to the weight ofthe passing trains, which will eliminate the objectionable loosening ofconnecting parts and the resulting pounding at the joints, and whichwill 'maintain these conditions irrespective of heat expansion orcontraction, of wear, of surface disintegration of the parts, or ofstretching in the holding elements. Accordingly,-I provide the splicebar such as will fulfil the above conditions, or any other suitablesplicing device, with such a firm engagement with the adjacent railsthat stresses on the rail due to the passing trains are transferred fromone rail to the next as.

if the rails were continuous, that is, the

RAIL-J OIN T.

Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

wheel engaging surfaces are maintained in alinement rrespective of theposition of;

loads on the rails and at the same time there IS provided a resihentconnection at the ends of the rails permitting a continuity of the Astill further object is to so design the parts that the connections willbe protected from ice, track ballast and the like'without the additionof any extra material for this particular purpose.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in partobvious from ,an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in partwill be more fully set forth in the following particular description ofone form of mechanism embodying the inventiqn, and the invention furtherconsists in certain new and novel features of construction andcombination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawingsz-Figure 1 is an end elevation ofone form of my invention applied to the rail joint and showing one ofthe rails in section; Fig. 2,is a side elevation of the device shown inFig. l with parts broken away; Figs. 3. and 4 are views similar to Fig.1 showing modified forms of the invention; and Fig. 5 is a sectionaxially.

through a spring of a form preferred for this device.

In the drawings, and referring particularly to Fig. 1, there are shownrails 1 of conventional form and for the purpose of this disclosure areshown to be new A, S.

C. E. standard 100 lb. rails having a fho-.

ment of inertia of 434 calculated with reference to their neutral aXisindicated by the line aa of Fig. 1. An unworn car wheel 2 is shown inits normal position on the unworn rail, but as the rail and particularlythe tread surface of the wheel wears away the tread surface of the railwill tend first.

to assume the curve indicated by the dotted line b-b and then assume acurve substan tially parallel to the original curve of the is of a massmerely suflicient to resist T gages the boltshoulders which are on thehead. Lapping adjacent ends of the rails on opposite sides thereof, areintegral splicing elements comprising an inner splice bar 3 and an outersplice bar 4, each having a rail head engaging portion 5, a rail baseflange engaging portion 6, in wedging engagement respectively with therail head and bottom flange and having a connecting upstanding web 7. Anintegral nose 8 extends outward beyond the rail head from the portion 5and has its upper surface 9 beveled downward from the rail head andthrusts, particularly outward thrusts, on the rail heads. The undersurface 10 is substantially horizontal, or as near'so as can be rolled,so asto fit relatively close to the spring hereinafter described.

A flange 11 depends from and underlaps K the middle of the portion 6 toform an acute angle therewith, the crotch 12 -of Which is slightlyspaced from the adjacent edge of the lower flange of the rail to permitslight movement of the bar toward therail. This flange forms an angle ofapproximately 40 with the bottom of the rail and has its lower edge 13disposed just within the mean line of stress indicated by the line ccwhich is taken normal to the engaging. line of the under side of therail head and the portion 5 and at the center thereof. As the rails wearaway this stress is first greater on the line cc in Fig. 1

and then equalizes with line f-f, but the width of the web 7 is sodesigned that a large proportion of this line will 'fall within themetal of the web in all serviceable con' ditions of the'rail.

One or morerelatively short bolts 14, preferably of heat-treated alloysteel, and in this disclosure .being the usual one inch bolts havingshouldered ends, extend through the splice bars 3-and 4 and throughapertures 15 in the web of the rail, one of said shoulders preferablybeing .the bolt head and bearing on one of the Webs 7 and the othershoulder usual bolt nut 16. i

A plate 17 is carried by the portion of two or more bolts beneath thenose 8, preferably lapsthe ends of the rails and en.-

adjacent side of the rails.

A tension member of relativelyqgreat strength, such as the coiled spring18, is

carried by'one or more of the bolts 14 and.

has opposite ends bearing on the plate 17 and the web of the outersplicebar 4 and acts to draw, continuously, one or both of the splice barsinto firm wedging engagement with the rail. The springs 18 are of:suflicient tensionto resist the rail disalining efi'ect of high speedtrains passing-over the,

joint, and asthis d isalining force is frequently as "much as twelve totwenty tons,

. I I I preferably being the rail.

depending upon weight of traflie, etc., the

coils must be constructed so as to have the maximum cross-sectional areawhich will convenientlv fit 1n the space between the portion 6 and theunder surface 10 of the sirable to confine any projecting member.

as close to the rail as possible so as not to interfere with the drivingor withdrawing of the holding spikes 19. The coils of the spring areconstructed non-circular in cross-section so as to obtain a maximumamount of material within the limited length and height of the springspace and the spring is compressed ,preferably :until its 4 adjacentcoils touch so as to obtain the maximum tension of the spring. The coilsare preferably trapezoidal in cross-section with the long parallel edgesat the mandrel of the spring so that when the spring is compressed toits limit there is formed practically a solid inner core and a spacepermitting distortion of the spring between the outer edges of adjacentcoils. With the device shoWn in Fig. 1 these springs each have a tensionWhen compressed of about 2 tons so that when six springs are used theforce thereof acting horizontally resolves itself into two forces, oneof which is about 72 tons acting vertically upward to resist 'thedisalining eifect on the rails of the passing trains. v

As the rails themselves are designed with a definite moment of inertiato meet the requirements of stress dispositions incidental to theservices required on this track, it has been desirable to make the jointof similar properties. signed to have two characteristics of the rail,first to have a moment of inertia verti-- cally therethrough, betweenthe meeting ends of the rail equal to that of the rail, and second tohave the beam depth of the splice bars 3' and 4 along the resultant lineof stress H substantially equal to that of the Aside from. affording aconvenient basis for designing the splice'bars, this particular beamdepth has been-found admirably adapted for convenient installation Withthe standard rails. Further, should the depth of the bar be decreasedfrom this set depth more area of section would have to be added to.obtain the desired moment of inertia, and if the depth be increased thelateral stifi'ness would be lessened and it Accordingly the joint isdewould be necessary to add more area'to maintain lateral strength, butin addition also to the unnecessary use of metal in this instance, thiswould-make the joint too stifi, I

prevent uniform. wave motion of the rail With the length and angulard'sposition the reof the depending flange describe 'sultant line ofstress has its greatest length for the particular beam depth and theoffset in the bar around the base flange of the rail does not modifythis beam action, for the offset part is reinforced by an amount ofmetal just necessary to take care of the increased stress produced bythe leverage. Considering variations from this construction, should thedepending flange be shortened so that the line c-c falls outside of thebar, that is, nearer the center of the rail than the tip of the flange,then there would be a moment about the top of the bar which would causea twisting or torsional stress in the bar and an increased outwardstress on the bolts. If the flange be lengthened so that the stress linefalls well within it, the

. leverage will be inward but the additional metal would add to thestiffness of the joint and interruptthev uniformity of wave motion inthe track under the action ofpass ing trains. With this depth of thesplice bar as a constant, the moment of inertia is estimated about thehorizontal neutral axis of the bar through the center of mass there'-of'as'indicated by the line dd on Fig. 1.

the bolts.

With the splice bars and their fastening elements shown in this figurethe moment of inertia of the inner bar is 21.85 and that of the, outerbar 22.05 making a total of 43.9

for both bars or approximately equal to that of the rall. With thisdisposition of metalthe web 7 .may be made relatively thin, the ammedcoils of the spring 18 forming practically a solid extension from saidweb to take up transverse strains thereon. Further the bolt heads aredisposed close in leaving a clearance, which'permits the spikes 19totion of the upper face 9 is such that objects falling thereon clearthe bolts as they are below the tangent line ee shown in Fig.1, thuspractically eliminating any shearing-of spring is housed, as the web andnose of the splice bar and the 'plate form an inclosing structurestraddling the spring and act to protect the same from rock ballast,drippings from the cars or any interference with the springs.

Where the bolts are drawn into tight en- ;gagement with thejrails andbars, and even where the heat treated alloy steel bolts are By means ofthis structure the used, there is eventually produced a suflicientelongation of the bolts .to lose their tight I binding effect, and withthe loosening of the place along the contacting surface of the rail andof the bar portions 5 and 6. But by meaiis of this construction, thesplice bars bars and rails, a surface disintegration takes 1 are capableof being pressed toward the rail f web and in continuous wedgingengagement with. the .rail head and lower rail flange as the contactingsurfaces wear away by this surface corrosion, scaling or other cause.

This spring appears further to overcome the adhesion due to the rustingor sticking of the parts and breaks through whatever coating's, such asiron oxid, thatmay be formed between the rails and bars; I, This wedgingengagementcauses the portion 5 to bear against the rail'heads of, b othrails, main-v taining the rails in alinement when a train load isadjacent the end 'of one of the rails and the open space between thespring coils and the resiliency of the plate 17 both permit agiving ofthe rails suflicient. to

eliminate any feeling of rigidity when riding over the joint.

The outer face ofi the web 7'is flat and affords a broad bearing surfacefor the inner ends of the springs and this surface is so arranged thatthe strains thereon are transmitted to the rail through relativelymassive parts. Th plate 17 affords abroad bearing for the opposite endsof the springs and this plate is of a rigidity suflicient to transmitthe strains on one of the bolts to the other bolt or bolts.

the bolt nuts are held from turning thereby to prevent loosening of theparts from this cause. j

Referring to the modification shown in Fig. 3, a resilient andpreferably a flexible preformed member 20, such-as a compressed fabric,is disposed between the contacting surfaces of the rails and'splicebars. Where the splice bar is not used as an electric 'con- .ductorbetween rails, this member may be made of some suitable electricalinsulatingmaterial.

It has been desirable to utilize the splice bar as an electric conductorbetween rails to complete signal and other circuits, but an imperfectcontact between the rails and bars develops after the device has been inuse for ,a While and bonding wires are at Dresent used to insure acontinuous circuit. By meansof the structure'herein disclosed,

A further and in- 'cidental function of this structure is that only inphysical, but also in electric con-- tact and acts to overcome any breakin the circuit due to rusting, inertia of the parts or other causes.

A modification is disclosed in Fig. 4 to show the installation of thefastening means in connection with bars resembling the standard bars andthe barsare here shown with the underlapping or depending flanges 11 ofFig. 1, together with their functionsabove outlined, omitted and thenovel binding elements are shown in connection with a standard inner bar31 and an outer bar 41, the lower portion of which resembles that of theinner bar except that the portion 6 has been slightly reduced inthickness in order to provide a foot .42 to accommodate a spike hole orslot 43 beyond the plate 17 without increasing the amount of -metalused.

Although I have shown only one form of mechanism embodying my invention,it is obvious that various changes within the skill of the mechanic maybe made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention,provided the means set forth'in the following claims are employed.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: i

1. In a rail joint, the combination with adjacent rails, of a pair ofparallel strain transferring members comprising inner and outer memberslapping adjacent ends ofthe rails on one side thereof, the outer memberhaving a rail head engaging portion with a nose projecting therefromadapted to resist thrusts on the rail heads, a rail baseflange engagingmember and a connecting web, a relatively short bolt passing through oneof said rails and said members, a coiled spring compressed substantiallyto its maximum tension carried by said bolt between said nose and flangeengaging portion and having opposite ends bearing on said members tomaintain said inner member in engagement with the rails, said springhaving the greatest possible cross section whereby a spring of astrength to resist the thrusts on the rails by the passing trains may becontained in a space .within the adjacent edge of the base flange.

'2. In railway 'traek construction, the combination' with a pair ofrails having ad: jacent ends disposed in juxtaposition to form the railjoint, of a splice bar having a web lapping said juxtaposed ends, meansfor maintaining said bar in engagement with one of saidrails,.said.means including a plate and a tens'ioned member disposedvhanging said .member, said web, rib and plate forming an inclosedhousing strad-,

dling said tensioned member to protect the same.

3. In combination with a rail, of. a splice bar in wedging engagementwith the rail, a resilient member between the engaging portions ofsaidrail and bar and a compressed coiled spring with substantiallycontacting coils tending to move said bar toward said rail, saidcompressible member affording a slight movement between the rail and barin the direction which would tend to further compress the spring.

{1. In a rail. joint, the combination with adjacent rails, of a splicebar bridging adj acent ends of said rails, a double shouldered boltpositioned through one of said rails near the bolt and relatively farapart outl ward of the bolt.

5. In a rail joint, the combination with two elements thereof, of acompressed coiled spring having coils trapezoidal in cross section andheld compressed between said elements, a portion of certain adjacentcoils being positioned relatively. close to each other and anotherportion being spaced relatively far apart.

6. In railway track construction, the com-. bination with two railshaving adjacent ends disposed in juxtaposition to form the rail joint,of a pair of splice bars lapping said juxtaposed ends on opposite sidesof the rails an'dsecured thereto, each splice bar having a beam depthequal to the beam depth of one of the rails and the portions of thesplice bars at the joint, each having a disposition of metal such thatthe sum of the products of unit areas in a vertical section through saidportion, multiplied by the of said unit areas from the neutral axis of'the rail.

7. An integral rail splice bar comprising a rail head engaging portion,a rail base engaging portion, a connecting web therebe tween and aflange extending from said rail base engaging portion and underlappingthe same, the beam depth of the bar, along the resultant .lineofstresseto which the bar is subjected, being substantially equal to thedepth of the rail and the material thereof 7 so disposed that the. sumsof the moments of inertia calculated about the horizontal neutral axisof the bar, of a pair of coacting splice bars affixed on opposite sidesof the rails at the joint, shall be substan* tially equal to the momentof inertia of the rail calculated about its horizontal neutral axiswith. a resulting vertical stiffness and elasticity equal to thevertical stiffness and elasticity of the rail.

8. A splice bar for rail joints adapted to lap adjacent ends ofsucceeding rails and to be fastened thereto, said bar having a moment ofinertia vertically inclined through the bar at the portion disposedadjacent meeting ends of the rails substantially equal to one-half ofthe moment of inertia of one of the rails, whereby a pair of splice barsdisposed on opposite sides of the rails at the joint will have a momentof inertia equal to that of one of the rails with a resulting stiifnessand elasticity vertically equal to those of the rail.

9. A rail joint construction comprising tionedconjointly to have avertical moment of inertia substantially equal to the vertical moment ofinertia of the rail, each of said splice bars being arranged with a headat its upper end in engagement with the under surface of the rail headhaving a substantially uniform thickness below said head and beingprovided with a freely depending flange inwardly inclined to extendunder the rail base, and of such a length as to give a beam depth to thebar substantially equal to that of the rail and so that the flange tipswill extend approximately to the mean lines of stress to which the jointis subjected.

10. A splice bar for rail joints comprising a head to engage with therail head, a vertical web, a base to engage with the top of the railbase, and a flange on said base inwardly inclined to extend under therail and of such a length that its lower edge will be positioned in aplane slightly within the plane containing the resultant lines ofstress, the beam depth of the bar from the upper surface of its head 'tothe'lowest edge of theflange, being substantially equal to the depth ofthe rail, the cross sectional area of the splice bar through the flangebeing such that the sum of the products of unit areas multiplied by thesquare of the distance of said unit areas from the neutral axis of thebar of two splice bars adapted to be bolted to the rails at the joint,one on each side, shall be substantially equal to the vertical moment ofinertia of one of the rails with the resultant stiffness and elasticity,said flange extending freely into the space under the rail, out ofcontact with the rail base or with any other part. 11. In a railconstruction, the combination with a spring, of an integral rail splicebar, comprising a rail head engaging por-' tion having a rib to extendbeyond the rail head thereby to form an overhanging protecting ledge forthe spring of greater width than the length of the spring, and having ahorizontal lower surface to extend over the spring, a rail base engagingmember and a connecting web therebetween adapted to form'a bearlng forone end of the protected spring, the space between said lower surfaceand said nose being substantially triangular in vertical section and theouter end of the nose being capable of free movement under the action ofstrains on said head.

13. In a suspended rail joint construction, the combination with a pairof rails having adjacent ends positioned relatively close to each otherto form a joint and having base flanges, of a splice bar bridging thejoint,

said bar having a web portion with a vertically disposed outer face, anose and a base flange engaging member both projecting forwardly fromsaid outer face to form a channel, a vertically disposed platepositioned within the outer edge of the adjacent flange to permit thedriving of rail spikes having inwardly projecting heads at the edge ofthe base flange, said plate forming with said channel a spacesubstantially rectangular in vertical transverse section, a bolt in saidspace connecting said plate and one of said rails, a spring surroundingsaid bolt within said space and fitting relatively close to the same,said spring having an axial cross sectional area of materialsubstantially equal to the spaces vertically between the nose, baseflange engaging member and the bolt, whereby a spring of maximum tensionmay be disposed within this limited channel space.

14. In a rail joint construction, the combination with adjacent rails,of a splice bar bridging adjacent ends ofsaid rails, means for fasteningsaid bar to one of said rails, and high tensioned means engaging saidbar and the other of 'said rails and exerting a resistance of more thanfifty tons to the vertical rail disalining action of the passing tralns.

15. In combination, a pair of rails having adjacent ends disposed injuxtaposition to form the rail joint, a splice bar lapping saidjuxtaposed ends, said splice bar having a beam depth substantially equalto the beam depth of one of the rails and the portion of the splice barat the joint having a moment of inertia substantially equal to one-halfof the moment of inertia of one of the rails,

said splice bar comprlsiug an upstanding web, a rail head engagingportion and a rail base engaglng portion extending outwardlyrespectively from adjacent the top and bottom of' said web, said railhead engaging portion including a nose'outllned by a substantlallyhorizontal under surface, a bolt extending through one of said railsand. the

web of said splice bar, a springsurrounding said bolt and disposedbetween and substantially filling the space vertically between theundersurface of the nose and the top surface of the rail base engagingportion of the splice bar, said spring having coils trapezoidal incross-section and compressed with the succeeding coils substantiallytouching each other, said spring bearing on the bolt and on the web ofthe splice bar.

and when so compressed having a depth substantially equalto the depth ofthe hori zontal undersurface of the nose.

16. In arail joint construction, the combi- In witness whereof I havehereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

- LEWIS R. COMPTON. Witnesses:

M. J. COOPER,

S. A. THORNT N.

